Following on from the previous post about the media ignoring what the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement actually does (clue, no, it’s not a mere trade agreement), we are increasingly seeing the media pushing a narrative that can only be described as outright propaganda that seeks to conceal the EU’s actions, behaviour and responsibility for the crisis.
Yesterday, without any journalistic integrity or commitment to sharing news rather than views, the Telegraph and its ‘experts’ grandly waded further into the Ukraine story with a podcast that can only be described as a rank perversion of the facts and a corruption of the historical record of events surrounding the Ukraine crisis.
The podcast was introduced on the page in the following way:
Power corrupts and it has corrupted Vladimir Putin absolutely. As the drama in Ukraine continues, we examine the mind and motivations of the man responsible.
Ian H Robertson, Professor in Psychology at Trinity College Dublin and author of The Winner Effect: How Power Affects Your Brain, explains how over time the need for power messes with the synapses and induces megalomania. The Professor tells us that the only way the West can get under Vladimir Putin’s skin is through practical sanctions.
Benedict Brogan and Con Coughlin discuss what those sanctions might look like, and if Britain even has the interest or clout to help resolve this dangerous crisis.
This is just staggering. Describing Putin as the man responsible for the Ukraine crisis is ludicrous. We can but guess why the real culprit in this caper is being treated as if it doesn’t exist and has no bearing on events over recent months.
It was not Putin who was pursuing a policy designed to promote a gradual convergence on legal, social, foreign and security matters with the aim of ever-deeper involvement with Ukraine, it was the European Union. The EU has a sole foreign policy (which means it is UK foreign policy) of enlarging itself so it can take control of more and more countries across the continent.
You’re ignoring me again!
The EU has already taken control of the Baltic countries, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia and they have also become part of NATO. The EU had already started trying to do the same thing with Georgia and has been doing the same thing with Ukraine. This has happened despite the west (NATO) promising Mikhail Gorbachev that they would not expand up to the Russian border. But that is exactly what is happening.
It is laughable of Brogan and Coughlin to talk about power corrupting, and completely ignore that this defines what we are seeing with the EU. It is equally laughable that they engage a professor of psychology to talk about how the need for power messes with the synapses and induces megalomania while ignoring the EU’s aggressive efforts to enlarge itself and take control of new countries.
As for practical sanctions supposedly being the only way to get under Putin’s skin, the evidence shows that bad faith, lies and broken promises are the way to achieve that – which is why the Russians have acted to secure territory that had long been sovereign Russian territory and is home to a Russian naval fleet. Finally, asking if Britain has the interest or clout to help resolve this crisis, when we have been party to its creation thanks to this country’s support of the Association Agreement with Ukraine and readiness to ratify this power grab by our supreme government, is pure sophistry.
This is yet another compelling reason for the UK to leave the EU. We have no business furthering such an agenda.
How far the Telegraph has travelled from the days where it reported news and facts. Now it is a tool of deception that treats its remaining (declining) readership with utter contempt.
Autonomous Mind 
They still see it (EU) as a trading organization. The number of people that simply, ‘do not get it’, is truly astounding. But it is good to see that one country and its leaders, both see and know exactly what it is and what they are up against and the treat they pose to its Sovereignty.
Putin is in deed a powerful and dangerous man. But he is not empty sock puppet either. He stands up for his country and its interests and is probably going to regard the EU as a serious threat to him and his nation. The EU has just pissed off a serious rival. I think life for the EU from here on end is going to get a bit more interesting.
Most of the people don’t realise that the eu does not do free trade at all, it does conditional trade once the conditions are realised and implemented it negates any advantage, notwithstanding the issue of sovereignty. From our perspective, in my opinion, considering open borders and implementing eu directives it actually becomes a negative and then some.
However false the EU’s argument is that their proposed deal with Ukraine was just a trade agreement, & Obama’s that it’s unconstitutional for a part of a federal state to vote to leave it, that still leaves the problem of the Russians’ current excessive & annexation-like plans & operations in the Crimea. If the Soviet Union – pardon me, Russia – wanted to observe the usual international norms over the current Ukrainian situation, it would have:
1. encouraged Yanukovych to govern wisely & not kleptocratically,
2. advised him (while being prepared to accept an EU trade deal) to publically reject any more than that,
3. not taken steps at his ouster that have amounted to a steady/stealthy annexation of the Crimea,
4. not used Russian troops dressed as pro-Russian militia,
5. discouraged any official Russian forces from doing anything potentially threatening or provocative,
6. repudiated any threatening behaviour towards all official Western observors & impartial journalists, &
7. not clashed with, &/or rejected so obstinately & truculently, Western official complaints about the developing situation.
But that’s exactly what has happened! So, to get anywhere near working out what must be done to produce a reasonably just solution, we should look at the ethnic diistribution in Ukraine. The map on the 2nd page of the linked Economist article (assuming it is accurate) reveals that there are Ukrainian speaking majorities in all provinces of Ukraine, barring the Crimea. Even the two most easterly ones – Luhansk & Donetsk – both with large Russian minorites have Ukranian-speaking majorities. Only the Crimea has a clear Russian-speaking majority. See: http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21597974-can-ukraine-find-any-leaders-who-will-live-up-aspirations-its-battered-victorious
So that’s what the governments of the Ukraine & Russia should be working on. In other words: how to meet the long-term needs of such an ethnic mix – without:
a) being hampered by Russian attempts to put back its imperial clock,
b) the current Ukrainian government’s efforts to hang on to a territory whose majority may want to leave it in Russia’s favour, &
c) EU attempts to subtly spread its empire – even into those places which tend to look elsewhere than to Europe for their cultural & ethnic influences.
Although this is the common sense way out of this dangerous impasse, unfortunately very voices are calling for it. If we follow this approach, there should be peace. If we don’t, there may well be war!
Apologies – off topic, but this is an interesting one….
…’We need to be able to argue that all our trade, not just our EU trade, rests on our membership of the EU’…
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2014/03/09/more-government-leaks-letter-from-dr-roy-spendlove-to-dame-lucy/
Buddy, you’re so wrong it’s not funny! You have this problem with the EU but if had actually visited all those former Communist countries before they joined the EU, you might understand why they were adamant to join. Now, regardless of the EU’s economic problems, their standards of living have risen tremendously. I live in Ukraine where the per capita GDP is US$4000. In Poland it is now US $14,000. However, in 1991, when the USSR fell apart, the Ukrainian per capita GDP was higher than Poland’s. And as someone who had travelled extensively through all of the former Communist states while they were still Communist and now, that they are part of the EU, I can tell you that their increase in standard of living is tremendous.
However, your statement that “Describing Putin as the man responsible for the Ukraine crisis is ludicrous.” really is plain stupid and devoid of any facts. It is Putin who started a one way trade war and economic sanctions last summer so that Ukraine would not sign the Association Agreement. We know now that it was Putin who was pulling Yanukovych’s strings during the last 3 months. And it is most likely that it was Putin that ordered the bloody crackdown on the peaceful demonstrations in Ukraine, after which they turned violent.
But unless you are extremely dumb and blind, you must have noticed that the Russian Army has invaded Ukraine?!?!?!!
I can tell you this. If before the Russian invasion, only 30% of Ukrainians were in favour of joining NATO. Now, 80% are in favour. And now, the majority of Ukrainians truly are united and in favour of joining the EU since they can see that RUssia is Ukraine’s true enemy and they want NOTHING to do with RUssia. And by the way, don’t go thinking that the demonstrations in eastern and southern Ukraine a few days ago were held by “Ukrainians” demonstrating in favour of joining Russia. It has now been found that these “Ukrainians” were bused in from Russia. The guy who raised the Russian flag on Kharkiv city hall posted a photo of him doing it on his Facebook page. He is born, raised and lives in Moscow. So, cut your BS and get your brain in order.
“started a one way trade war and economic sanctions last summer so that Ukraine would not sign the Association Agreement”
Too funny… You say I’m wrong then make my point for me! Bedankt voor dat!
You’re waffling on about the effect and completely ignoring the cause. This problem started because the EU refused to stay out of the Russian sphere of influence. It is trying to encroach along the whole of the Russian border and take control of a country where an autonomous region is still considered Russian by most of its population and is home to Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
So for all your bluster you’ve still failed to engage your brain. The Association Agreement presented by the EU in pursuit of its agenda to control as many countries across the continent as possible, regardless of how it will provoke a rival, set this off. Had the EU not gone chasing its enlargement dream and had left Ukraine alone, we would not have the crisis we are now seeing.
Update: 6.50pm ITV News has just said that given the size of the pro-Russian demonstrations in eastern Ukraine there’s no way the people have been bussed in as claimed by Vladimir Klitschco. It shows the country is bitterly divided. But you believe what you like.
The EU is also pushing on another front to similarly associate Georgia and Moldova:
http://german-foreign-policy.com/
Caucasian Interim Report (II) 2014/02/14
“Eclipsed by the power struggle over the Ukraine, Berlin is pushing to speed up the signing of two other EU Association Agreements. The agreements to permanently associate Georgia and Moldova to the EU should be signed in due form no later than August and should be implemented as soon as possible. The agreement with Georgia is considered particularly important, because it will firmly anchor the EU in the strategically important South Caucasus, thereby weakening Russia’s position in a highly sensitive region: Georgia can exert its influence on the hot spots in Russia’s North Caucasus and secondly, strategically important gas pipelines transit this region.”
It seems the EU and US are dangerously pushing Putin into a corner.
This is spot on. I’m currently covering this in an ongoing series as well and this fits the scenario to a T.
But, EForster, how can this be true? Surely it’s all Putin’s fault…?
/sarcasm